,Apple’s 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) opened today in San Jose, California, and the opening keynote revealed transformational releases coming to nearly every product in Apple’s portfolio.

WWDC 2018 began with boasts about the 6,000 developers in physical attendance, 20 million Apple developers around the world, the App Store’s 10th birthday next week, and its 500 million weekly visitors.

From there, it was off to the races as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook shared an overview of Swift, which he said was the fastest-growing programming language in the world with 350,000 apps in the App Store alone. Before Cook handed things off, he left audiences with the theme of the keynote, and Apple’s mantra for the year ahead: “Put the customer at the center of everything.”

The impending release of iOS 12 was a linchpin of all other announcements at the keynote. Existing iOS customers will get it as a free software update and can expect it to double down on performance.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality was — predictably — the first and most exciting announcement of the day. A collaboration with Pixar has yielded a new file format: USDZ. Optimized for sharing and great graphics, USDZ allows you to place 3D objects into the real world.

They demonstrated this new technology through a partnership with Adobe, who announced native USDZ support for Creative Cloud. Designers and developers can now use Photoshop to create AR content and bring it easily to USDZ. They’re also unveiling a new set of apps for iOS, which will allow users to bring images, videos, and text from Creative Cloud into native AR environments.

AR Kit 2 was announced as the world’s largest AR platform, with improvements coming to face tracking, realistic rendering, 3D object detection, persistence, and shared experiences. Apple also demonstrated an impressive multi-user augmented reality feature in which two players, and a third observer, experienced the same environment in real time.

Apple Shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts now makes it possible for users to program shortcuts into Siri. For example, if you use the Tile App regularly to find your lost keys, you can easily program a Shortcut to say, “Siri, I lost my keys,” so Siri immediately pulls up Tile.

Browsing updates are coming to the News App, and users can expect a completely rebuilt Stocks App with performance-reflecting stock bars and a news integration. And iBooks is getting a rebrand to — wait for it — Apple Books. The biggest cheers in this portion of the keynote came when it was announced Apple CarPlay will now support third-party navigation apps — which tells you just how much even Apple developers dislikes Apple Maps.

When it came to tracking app and device usage, Apple struck a similar tone to Google’s keynote saying we’re all too distracted by our devices. To solve for this, they announced a trio of features to help users understand how they’re spending their time.

Do Not Disturb is getting new functionality blocking notifications at night, for an hour, or while you’re at a specific location. And grouped notifications, which group by app, topic, or thread, received roaring applause. Apple also unveiled a reporting function that provides a weekly overview of how you’ve spent your device time.

Tongue Detection (yes, you read that right), new Animojis, and a Memoji that allows users to create a personalized Animoji of themselves were also big hits with the audience. Because haven’t we all been waiting for an emoji that sticks out its tongue on command?

Group FaceTime

The next Apple product to put in face time with developers was, fittingly, FaceTime. And Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, announced one of the most exciting additions to this native app — not just to developers, but to consumers and businesses of all walks of life.

That addition is Group FaceTime.

Group FaceTime integrates directly with group chat, allowing you to shift a text thread of up to 32 participants into a FaceTime with all 32 people represented. Apple’s entire FaceTime Team helped Federighi demonstrate:

Users can also answer the audio of a Group FaceTime in which they’re a participant through Apple Watch.

Apple Watch

Apple’s VP of Technology Kevin Lynch took the stage next, with a fitting transition into a number of enhancements to Apple Watch, a still-new device as part of Apple’s suite of hardware.

As young as Apple Watch is, Lynch announced some truly competitive additions to its operating system, Watch OS 5 — most of which are to its Gym kit.

After studying 6 terabytes worth of real fitness data, Apple Watch has reportedly made its fitness system much more intuitive to how people exercise. This includes a new hiking app, using elevation gain as a key metric by which users can analyze their hike; and enhancements to the classic Running app, which can now detect when it thinks you’ve started a workout — and start tracking it accordingly.

Arguably the biggest Apple Watch rollout was Walkie-Talkie (and yes, it does make you look a bit like a secret agent when using it). This new feature will allow you to hold and release a “Talk” icon on the Apple Watch face to send short audio messages to your recipient. See this wearable walkie-talkie below:

Lynch closed out his remarks on Apple Watch with a brief announcement that’s sure to be exciting among college students: Student ID cards. Those who use Apple Wallet can add their college IDs as a scannable item to the app, allowing them to access dorms, dining halls, laundry machines, and more right from their wrist.

It will be available to students of Duke, Temple University, the University of Oklahoma, and more this fall.

Apple TV

Some of the most beautiful announcements came from Apple’s Design Lead, Jen Folse, who described what is sure to please Apple TV customers.

Folse began her keynote revealing Apple TV’s new integration Adobe Atmos, Dolby’s three-dimension sound technology. But what good is fresh new audio without fresh new video to go with it? Folse went on to announce more than 100 new video channels that incorporate both live news and live sports into the Apple TV viewing experience. Apple is currently working with Canal+, a company in France; Salt., a company in Switzerland; and more to bring these channels to audiences abroad.

Convenience is another challenge that Apple is likely aware of in Apple TV, which is why Folse closed her keynote with new login protocol that makes Apple TV much easier to use.

Rather than “single sign-on,” which is normally required when signing into each network of which you are a customer, Apple TV plans to upgrade all customers to “zero sign-on.” This will enable Apple to sign you into all pay-TV networks automatically when using Apple TV, with just a basic set of internet login credentials.

MacOS Mojave

Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi returned to the stage to give the highly anticipated Mac keynote, featuring a slew of interface-related improvements and a timely statement on data privacy.

“We’ve left the high country,” Federighi said, commenting on Apple’s several mountain-inspired macOS nicknames — Yosemite, El Capitan, and High Sierra among the most recent. Apple’s new Mac operating system is Mojave, and with it, Dark Mode.

This new Apple ecosystem brings Mac users a soft, nighttime look and feel to their desktops and laptops. It will be of particular appeal, Federighi says, to photographers and programmers who want their content to pop off the screen when working. Take a look:

Image by Abhimanyu Ghoshal

In addition to News, Stocks, and Home app integrations — all of them familiar to iPhone users — Federighi took a hard stance on personal privacy when introducing Apple’s next big release. And in light of recent Facebook data breaches coming from analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, this is a topic that Apple made sure to include at WWDC 2018.

Apple is now hiding social media share buttons from publisher websites without a user’s explicit permission. Federighi cited the fact that these icons can track your web browsing behavior whether or not you click on them.

This is a part of a larger move to make it harder for data collectors to identify the machine’s owner (a process Apple calls “Fingerprinting”), and establish a sense of uniformity across all Apple computers that have access to the internet.

Apple CEO Tim Cook concluded the company’s opening keynote with an expression of commitment to its developers. From making machine learning easier to implement, to a new dark interface that highlights the programming code these apps depend on, it seems like a bright future ahead in Cupertino, California.

Facebook announced on Friday that it would remove Trending: the section of its site, typically appearing to the right of the News Feed, that displays a list of the most popular news topics at a given moment.

“We’re removing Trending soon to make way for future news experiences on Facebook,” wrote Facebook Head of News Products Alex Hardiman in an official statement. “From research we found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful.”

Trending was first launched in 2014 “as a way to help people discover news topics that were popular across the Facebook community,” Hardiman wrote, but will now be phased out as Facebook introduces additional news-related products.

However, many suspect that there are other reasons for the removal of Trending from Facebook. To take a deep dive into them, I posed the question to my team: “What is this really about?”

Here’s how our experts weighed in on the matter.

Why Is Facebook Really Removing Trending?

1. Negative Stories About Facebook Often Appear in Trending

Trending, according to Facebook’s official description, aggregates the most popular news items among Facebook users “based on the number of publishers that are posting articles on Facebook about that subject and the engagement level of those articles.”

But Facebook has received a high degree of scrutiny and related news coverage over the past year, from a series of PR nightmares ranging from its role in election interference to the misuse of personal data by voter profiling firm Cambridge Analytica. Those stories have often taken a top position on the site’s Trending list.

When news broke that Trending would be phased out, for example — it, too, was discovered by many to take a top rank withing Trending.

Trending saying goodbye in the only way it knows how pic.twitter.com/8rqzQp69Wg

— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz)
June 1, 2018

“It seems to me like it could also be a strategic move on the brand side, given how much of the ‘trending’ news over the past few months has been around the Cambridge Analytica controversy,” says Annabelle Nyst, a HubSpot content strategist. “If they’re committed to transparency, they can’t remove that content from the Trending section  … but they can remove the section” itself.

2. Facebook Has Come Under Fire for Fake News Ranking on Trending

As Facebook has said itself, Trending aggregates news topics based on what’s being shared on Facebook by users the most. However, much of what is often most popularly shared consists of false content; e.g., a “live feed” of the supermoon cast in February of this year that actually turned out to be a continual broadcast of a still [stolen] image with sound effects playing over it, which received at least 16 million views.

Source: CNN

Facebook has announced a number of features and efforts to curb the spread of such false content since it was first revealed that the site was weaponized by foreign actors to spread misinformation and influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, largely through ad content. 

However, despite Facebook’s claims that “our team is responsible for reviewing Trending topics to ensure that they reflect real world events,” news content that was often less-than-real sometimes slipped through the cracks and still made its way onto the Trending section. The company made several efforts to fix that prior to announcing the removal of the section, including ranking only topics that were covered by several news publishers.

“The idea was that coverage by just one outlet,” wrote The Guardian‘s Press Association, “could be a sign that the news is fake.”

The removal of Trending is just the latest in a series of moves by Facebook to slow to spread of false content, the efforts for which could be expected to ramp up in the months leading to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

In January, the company announced that it would sharply shift its News Feed algorithm to prioritize content from a user’s friends and family, and in April said it would apply more context about publishers and articles appearing there.

“I actually think it’s consistent with Facebook’s prior announcements that it’s going to focus more on local news versus global news outlets, or news outlets that get benefits for being big in Facebook’s current newsfeed algorithm,” says HubSpot Head of SEO Victor Pan, referring to Facebook’s announcement that news items within a certain geographic radius would be prioritized in a user’s News Feed. “Local publishers will benefit … global outlets, like Reuters, AP, AFP will get hit hardest.”

3. Authentic News Publishers Didn’t Benefit From Trending

Trending, wrote Hardiman in his statement, “was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average.” For that reason, it seems, the lack of benefit to authentic news outlets is part of Facebook’s reasons for removing the section.

Given Facebook’s other recent efforts to prioritize more authentic content — sometimes by way of personalization and localization — from various news sources, HubSpot Social Media Editor Henry Franco says that this reasoning seems legitimate. 

“It’s a low traffic avenue, and with the platform catering towards video and mobile, there isn’t much of a reason to keep it,” he says, pointing to Trending’s mainly desktop-experience nature. “It seems like Facebook is still prioritizing breaking and local news, so I’m not sure they’re really up to anything.”

Whether or not authentic news publishers will actually benefit from this change is another story — one that Franco doesn’t think is entirely likely.

“But since Facebook has all of the leverage here,” he says, “I don’t think that matters to them.”

Looking ahead, Facebook is addressing the mobile-first preference among users to consume news content that Hardiman says it’s observed.

“We’ve seen that the way people consume news on Facebook is changing to be primarily on mobile and increasingly through news video,” he wrote. “We’re exploring new ways to help people stay informed about timely, breaking news that matters to them, while making sure the news they see on Facebook is from trustworthy and quality sources.”

One of those methods, Hardiman says, is by applying a “Breaking News” label to news matching that descriptor. Facebook is currently testing that feature with 80 publishers across several countries — “North America, South America, Europe, India and Australia” — which allows the publishers to apply this label themselves.

The new features will also include a “Today In” section of the site, where Facebook users can view breaking news from local publishers as a community. If that sounds familiar, it might be due to Google’s recent announcement of a similar feature in its new Google News app.

Given the sum impact of all these factors, Nyst says, the time spent on Facebook could be an underlying motivator for this latest move. 

“Who knows if that’s damaging user retention at all?” she asks. “But I can’t imagine it’s helping.”

Featured image source: Facebook

In recent years, I feel a bit spoiled when it comes to filling out online forms — typically, they’re able to auto-fill my information, and take less than a minute to get me what I need.

Forms used to require so much information, you’d have to really, really want something to dedicate the time to filling one out.

Now, we notice immediately if a form is cumbersome or time-consuming — because so many forms aren’t. If a form doesn’t almost instantaneously get us what we want, we ditch the page.

Here, we’ve collected some of the most impressive online forms so you can learn by example, and hopefully apply some of these methods to your own web forms moving forward.

1. Kickstarter

Kickstarter’s sign-up form is clean, with a basic white background, so you can focus on the form fields that matter. It also doesn’t ask for too much information, which is key for holding the attention of a busy audience.

2. House of Fraser

House of Fraser’s form is enticingly easy, with a pull-down menu to select delivery methods and columns like “collection or delivery” and “payment and billing”, so you can see where you are in the process. Best of all, the form incorporates the option for live chat. If a buyer is having concerns or doubts, it’s useful to have the ability to get clarification within the form itself without leaving the page.

3. Staples

A guest checkout option is often imperative to ensure anyone can buy your product, with or without an account. If someone is in a rush, they might become frustrated by a lengthy “Create Account” form, and abandon their efforts. Staples understands the necessity of guest checkout, and finds a way to include it without losing too many new account owners to that option — underneath their “New Customer” field, they outline benefits to creating an account versus guest checkout. Creating an easier new customer sign-up is an effective way to convert more users into account owners.

4. Leadformly

I’m willing to bet when you see only one question, you’re more willing to fill it out than if you were shown a long list. By keeping it to one field box at a time and creating a progress icon at the bottom, Leadformly likely mitigates the amount of users who leave the page before completion.

5. Class Pass

Allegedly, blue produces a calming effect, which is exactly how I felt checking out Class Pass’s landing page and immediately seeing a blue free trial button. Clearly, they know what I want. Their form is one of the easier ones in the list: it only requires your name, email, and password, or you can sign in via Facebook. Plus, when you fill out the form, you’re immediately gifted with a certain amount of credit, and a message that tells you the average amount of classes you can take in your city with those credits.

6. Toptal

A form should still abide by quality customer service rules. How can your form be helpful to a potential consumer, without frustrating them with unnecessary questions? Toptal, which helps you find and hire elite independent freelancers, does an incredible job, first by displaying how far along a user is in their form submission (which encourages them to keep going), and second, by incorporating a phone conversation seamlessly into the process.

After answering a few questions, their form concludes with a question: When should we call you? You’re given the option of now or later, and once you’ve answered, the form offers to automatically integrate your scheduled phone call into your Google calendar or iCalendar. Toptal knows its value is better explained via phone, and their form proves they respect your time and don’t want to waste it.

7. UX Passion

Sometimes you need to ask for more information than just name and email, which can frustrate a user. If you incorporate a message like UX Passion’s — “The more we know, the more we are able to help” — it could go a long way towards alleviating that frustration. Their message adds a human element, reminding you that the form fields were chosen as necessary elements to help you, not just to waste your time.

8. Basecamp Classic

As soon as you arrive at Basecamp Classic’s page, you’re greeted with a form. At the top, the form mentions how long it will take to fill out (60 seconds), and at the bottom, it highlights the benefits of the free plan and promises the trial won’t end. With those statements sandwiching the top and bottom of the form, it’s likely most visitors will fill it out because — well, why not?

9. Harvest

There are two reasons I love this form by Harvest: first, it answers my primary concerns upfront — Will I have to supply a credit card and risk getting charged if I don’t cancel my account? And what am I missing out on with the free version?

The second reason I love the form is the “5 Reasons You’ll Love Harvest” box on the right. The rest of the form is neat and clean, so there’s no confusion about where or what to fill out, but if you begin to waiver, the box on the right is an extra step to ensure you remember why you’re signing up.

10. Compare the Market

This is one of the most user-friendly ones in the list, with icons you can hover over to choose A or B, rather than a text field. Best of all, when you hover over an icon like “Yes, I have my bill,” you’re offered an explanation regarding why it’s necessary, and whether you can proceed without it. Plus, the buttons are big and colorful, creating an engaging and visually appealing user experience.

If you’re still unsure which direction you need to take your online forms to make your buyer happiest, try A/B testing one of these elements at a time. Ultimately, your form is a method to interact with your customers, so it should be thoughtful, relatively easy, and a strong reflection of your brand.

Sometimes, it seems like the internet is full of tedium — waiting for a page to load, juggling different passwords, and trying to find the perfect GIF image to describe your mood. But luckily, it’s also full of really cool nuggets — specifically in Google products.

Thanks to the clever developers at Google — who make it their mission to put the fun back into our daily routines — there are numerous “Easter eggs” hidden across Google’s suite of apps and tools that remind you how important the “human” side is to our favorite products.

Easter eggs are hidden gems, features, or moments of surprise buried within software and throughout the internet. They’re designed to catch you off guard and make you smile — if you can find them.

But why would you hide these fun, delightful gems? And since Easter eggs typically don’t add much functionally to the software or website, why bother taking the time to code them in?

A few years ago, HubSpot’s VP of Marketing, Meghan Anderson, asked a few of our colleagues for their opinions on the matter. And while she found that you’ll get a different answer from every person you ask, most answers boil down to the same motive: “for the fun of it.”

Mike Champion, Tech Lead at HubSpot

Follow @graysky

“Adding an Easter egg can be a fun diversion when writing challenging code … and it’ll hopefully amuse some people, too.”

Eric Peters, Senior Growth Marketing Manager at HubSpot Academy

Follow @EricPeters0

“Easter eggs are fun to build and fun to find, because they reward users that care enough to find and get excited about them. They create this feeling of being an insider with the application or company, which can be incredibly valuable in terms of brand loyalty and engagement.”

Laura Fitton, Inbound Marketing Evangelist at HubSpot

Follow @pistachio

“I feel like Easter eggs are part of the ‘developer’ personality. These are very smart people who love solving puzzles, and the intricacies of their work isn’t ever fully appreciated by most of the customers using their product. So by hiding an Easter egg, they can reward the customers who do take that extra initiative to really dig in and appreciate the software — and what goes into making it.”

Sharing these gems feels a bit like revealing the secret to a magic trick. After all, half the fun surrounding Easter eggs comes from the hunt for them. So, if you prefer to be surprised, stop now and instead grab the guide below to see how interactive content can help your next marketing campaign:

11 Surprising Google Easter Eggs

Easter egg hunting is a little easier if you’ve got a map. With some help from co-workers, Reddit, Little Big Details, Quora, and other sites, I’ve compiled a starter map for you, complete with some of the best hidden features on Google right now.

1. <Blink>

It’s been a long time since Google was “just” a search engine. But for those who want to have a bit of fun with its search feature, you’re in luck — Google’s developers have a sense of humor.

To start, look at what happens when you enter the query, “<blink>”:

The word “blink” actually blinks in all of the search results. It’s a sneaky, cheap thrill for those of us who are easily amused.

2. Do a Barrel Roll

This is probably my favorite Easter egg on Google. Type in “do a barrel roll” into the Google search bar, and see what happens. I’ll wait.

All done? Here’s a snapshot of your journey to remember it by:

Now that you’re right-side up again, let’s reflect on your experience. This funny feature is one of the oldest Easter eggs hidden in Google’s programming, but it never seems to get old.

“Do a barrel roll” is just the tip of the iceberg, though. If you can believe it, there’s also a function that allows you to “do a barrel roll twice.” Type this command into Googe’s search bar and click the first result that appears. This webpage rolls you around twice for maximum dizziness and, as your reward, offers a series of other Easter eggs on Elgoog — Google’s mirror-image website (“Elgoog” being “Google” spelled backwards).

3. Google Maps

While it didn’t take long for this easter egg to become discovered (and widely talked about), it’s still a pretty cool online treat. For April Fool’s Day 2017, Google Maps allowed users to turn its maps platform into a game of Ms. PAC-MAN:

The feature may have been intended as an April Fool’s joke, but as of the following Monday, it was still present on Google Maps — and the top search results for “Google Maps Ms. PAC-MAN” mostly covered ways to remove it.

4. Google’s Dinosaur Game

Does this dinosaur look familiar?

Chrome browser users might recognize him from a lack of internet connection. But now, there’s actually reason to rejoice when Chrome can’t connect. Even if you’re offline, when you land on that screen, watch what happens when you press the spacebar:

Well, I know what I’m doing next time the in-flight Wi-Fi isn’t working. And, good news for those who need more reason to procrastinate: Someone took the liberty to create the T-Rex Runner game page, so you can play any time. Plus, Android users can download the game here.

5. Bork, Bork, Bork!

If you’re familiar with the Muppets, chances are you’ve at least heard of the Swedish Chef character, who’s known to end his intro song with the words, “Bork, bork, bork!” Google has taken that phenomenon and incorporated it into its own language settings. Yes — “Bork, bork, bork!” is a language option.

To change your language settings, you must be logged into Google. Here are the steps to find this Easter egg:

1. Once logged into Google, visit the Google Search homepage and click your profile picture on the top-right.
2. Select “My Account,” and click “Language & Input Tools” in the Account preferences box on the menu that appears.
3. Select the “Language” bar, and click the pencil icon on the next page to find “Bork, bork, bork!” as an available language.
4. Select this as your default language and return to the Google Search homepage. (Don’t worry, you can return to English with a shortcut link below the search bar.)

Here’s what Google’s homepage looks like after selecting that as your preferred language:

“Feeleeng loocky”? Excellent. Try your hand at Google’s other language options, which — like Facebook — include Pirate and Klingon.

6. ‘I’m Feeling…’

I’ll admit it — I’ve never really bothered by Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button below the search bar because, well, I always seem to forget it’s there. But it looks like I’ve been missing out on a little trick.

If you hover your mouse over the button — without typing anything into the search box first — the text will spin like a slot machine into other options, like “I’m Feeling Hungry,” or “I’m Feeling Stellar.” Clicking on one will bring you to a topic-specific page:

7. Play Dreidel

Hanukkah season or not, this Google Easter egg is available year round at your command. Specifically, that command is the Google search, “play dreidel.”

Type these words into the Google search bar to play an endless digital game of dreidel with Google. Just click “SPIN AGAIN” below the blue dreidel, and Google will randomly land on one of the four classic Hebrew characters after a three-second spin.

8. Tic Tac Toe

Here’s another crowd-pleaser for the tabletop gamer. Google creatively allows searchers to play tic tac toe right on the results page. Just type in “tic tac toe” into Google’s search bar. It’s a nice surprise if you were initially looking for a tic tac toe website or template.

The best part? You can play against a friend on the same computer — or against Google. That’s right, challenge the search giant itself to a game of Xs and Os.

If you’re playing against Google, this Easter egg allows you to adjust the difficulty to “Easy,” “Medium,” or “Impossible.” Google has the gaul to skip right past Hard. One can only imagine the tactics it throws at you.

9. Askew

Looking for a definition of the word “askew”? Why tell you, when Google can show you. There’s something a little, well, askew about the page below, isn’t there?

Type in “askew” into Google’s search bar and you’ll get both the word’s definition and a literally askew results page to really make sure the meaning sinks in. Who knows how many other visual demonstrations Google produces when expanding your vocabulary …

10. The Answer to Life

There are high expectations in this Easter egg, I know. But for fans of Douglas Adams’ book, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” it’s worth this long entry into Google’s search bar. Type “the answer to life, the universe, and everything,” and you’ll get the charming and accurate result below:

Followers of Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” will know “42” as the true meaning of life. For others, it’s an inspiration to read this terrific novel — and do some basic math on Google’s native calculator tool (which you can also access by simply typing “calculator”).

11. Atari Breakout

Last, but definitely not least, we have a callback to the classic video game console from the 1970s — and a favorite mobile game to this day. Type in “atari breakout” into Google Images and get your arrow keys ready. A game of “Breakout” breaks out on your computer screen.

The colored blocks you see above are made up of all the image results for “atari breakout.” That means if I play my cards right, the picture above might in fact be part of your next round of this addicting game. When you’re done, simply click the “Return to image search” button next to the pause and volume icons.

For the sake of my productivity (and your own), I’ll stop there. But that’s hardly a comprehensive list of the internet’s Easter eggs, and all of them prove how entertaining your users is the key to their loyalty — no matter what product, solution, or information they’re looking for.

There are countless more out there to find, so we’ll leave the rest of the hunt up to you. Let the search begin.

Each year, marketers, tech writers, and overall online enthusiasts await the release of the 2018 Internet Trends Report: an annual presentation by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker covering the year’s most pivotal statistics and trends in the online realm.

The report, while citing key data points — growth in certain areas of internet use, online shopping trends, and indicators of the future of the workplace — is exhaustively comprehensive. Meeker leaves no stone unturned, identifying numerous pivotal areas where online user behavior is changing, and where investors, marketers, and others should take note.

The full presentation — which took place earlier this week at the 2018 annual Code Conference — can be viewed here.

And even though Meeker’s report covers an impressive amount of ground, the information and insights it contains often ends up raising additional questions. If the current is true of X, then what does the future look like for Y?

Here are a few key questions we have about the 2018 Internet Trends Report — and what the future of tech looks like.

4 Questions We Have About Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends Report

1. The time internet users spend online has increased, but when it comes to the number of new internet users, growth has significantly slowed. Does the future of growth reside in ways for people to connect, rather than getting more people online?

According to Meeker’s report, 2017 saw 3.6 internet users globally: a total that amounts to more than half of the world’s population.

“When markets reach [the] mainstream,” she writes, “new growth gets harder to find — evinced by 0% new smartphone unit shipment growth in 2017.”

In other words, with the internet becoming more accessible to more people, growth among new users slows. However, among those who are online, the time spent there has increased.

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

“It seems like we’ve reached a point where more internet users would require a greater investment in infrastructure, especially in underserved or underdeveloped regions,” says HubSpot Social Media Editor Henry Franco.

It’s what HubSpot Head of SEO Victor Pan says is called the “last mile problem”: a term often used when discussing supply chain or transportation to describe the final leg in the process of delivering a good or service to end consumers. That “last mile,” as the saying goes, is typically the least efficient step and said by some to be the most expensive part of the delivery process.

It applies to global internet access, Pan simply says, “because getting the internet to the last part of that population is really expensive,” largely because of its location in areas that are what he describes as “far and sparse.”

Where any product is available in a limited capacity, costs increase. “The remaining areas of the world without internet access are likely less able to afford it,” Pan explains. “In that case, you see the overall growth of internet users slowing down.”

What we’ll end up seeing, Franco predicts, “is a greater investment in more ways to connect existing users, rather than getting new users online.”

But even so, focusing innovation on new ways to connect people, rather than getting more of the population connected in the first place, is not without drawbacks, he says. “That could exacerbate skill, knowledge, and privilege gaps that already exist as a result.”

2. If the answer to Question 1 is “yes,” could this trend be a “golden ticket” for emerging technology like virtual reality, that has struggled to get a strong foothold in consumer and business markets alike? 

“Let’s assume the answer is ‘yes,'” Pan says. “The golden ticket isn’t actually virtual reality … but rather, a decreased cost for internet access as competition and alternatives increase.”

So the future of growth, then, could be less about the new ways the large volume of people who are already online will start to connect (or the emerging technologies that will support them) — and more about better options for access.

It brings up the question of technology like 5G, which, while considered an emerging technology, is more concerned with better connectivity options than the more niche tools — see: VR — that are sometimes “added benefits” of being online.  

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, for instance, 5G dominated many of the discussions and presentations, with multiple mobile device manufacturers and wireless providers appearing to battle to be the top provider of this new type of connectivity. The “G” stands for generation, in that this is the fifth generation of this type of connectivity. Currently, 4G powers cellular connectivity like LTE. 

Its goal, fittingly, is to support the rising number of mobile internet users, by providing better speed, handling more data, greater responsiveness, and connectivity to smart devices.

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

And while developing new technology to improve the experience of a growing mobile-first base is crucial, Pan wonders if even that’s moving too far ahead of the “last mile” too quickly.

“Most of the people reading this report, I imagine, are in first world countries and take 4G granted,” he says. “Most of the world connects to a 3G connection — which may lead to poor mobile video streaming experiences, because it’s cost-prohibitive. Costs need to come down for user behavior to change.”

3. Meeker speaks to the “privacy paradox”: that as innovation becomes a broader channel for growth, it involves a higher degree of personalization that can inevitably require personal user data. Can there be innovation with regulation?

Data privacy has been a widely-discussed and contested topic as of late, ranging from revelations of personal Facebook data misuse by third parties, to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force last month.

Often, this personal data is used for a purpose that the name suggests: a personalized experience. Facebook, the company’s executives have long used as a defense, leverages data and information provided by users to personalize the ads and other content they see in the News Feed, for example.

But as the subject of data privacy becomes more front-and-center, especially amid these current events, many consumers are debating the value of privacy over a personalized experience. Meeker calls this the “privacy paradox.”

“Many usability improvements are based on data – collected during the taps/clicks/movements of mobile device users,” writes Meeker. “This creates a privacy paradox… Internet Companies continue to make low-priced services better, in part, from user data. Internet Users continue to increase time spent on Internet services based on perceived value. Regulators want to ensure user data is not used ‘improperly.’”

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

The possibility of regulating personal data (and the Big Tech companies that are so often in possession of it) within the U.S. has also been a frequent topic of discussion this year, regardless of how likely it actually is. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in two days of hours-long hearings in April, as well as appearing before European Parliament in May. 

But regardless of what these appearances are worth, they do raise the question: Can there be innovation with regulation?

“Meeker’s slides tell a compelling story about the lack of general adaptability of U.S. laws towards tech,” says Franco. “Our data laws are more than 43 years out of date — especially as compared to Japan, Korea, and the EU, which have all gotten updates in the last year or so.”

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Pan, for his part, says that there’s a global struggle to find a balance of the two. 

“There two ends of the spectrum,” he explains. “One, the government has a hand in all that private data — like China, or even the U.S. with the PRISM program,” the latter being the collection of online communication activity by the National Security Agency, which made headlines when whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked information on the program and had to flee the country.

On the other end of the spectrum, Pan says, there are regions like the European Union, “where data privacy is heavily regulated to protect consumers.”

So, is there a balance — a middle ground along this spectrum — in the future?

“I think there will be innovation there,” says Pan. “I can imagine web hosting companies collect, handle, and keep personally identifiable information secure and data privacy compliant to their respective countries — for a price.”

The idea of “data protection for a price” is not new,  nor is it tremendously popular, according to our research. When we surveyed a panel of 893 consumers — almost evenly divided among the U.S., UK, and Canada — to find out how many would pay for an ad-free version of Facebook, 64% said “no.”

But knowing how this will impact innovation and the industry at-large, Franco explains, would require a side-by-side comparison of what these varying levels of regulation look like — especially in the months following GDPR coming into force.

“That would make a really interesting case study,” he says, “on the impact on innovation of self-regulation, versus government regulation of tech companies.”

4. What, if any, is the psychological impact of the growing amount of time we spend online?

Finally, we revisit the trend of those who are already online spending more time there. According to Meeker’s report, the average number of daily hours with digital media (among online adults) increased 4% in 2017.

The debate over disconnecting is also not new. As we spend more time on our devices, there’s even a market for getting away from them, with some organizations advertising, essentially, digital detoxes for hire.

This growing amount of time online is particularly true for of time spent on social media, according to the report, with the average global daily minutes spent on such networks increased by 50% between 2012 and 2017 — for users ranging as young as 16, and as old as 64.

Source: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

It begs the question: What is the psychological impact of this behavior?

“A lot of teens who come to me for therapy often cite social media as a source of stress,” says Laurie Paul, PhD, a psychologist in the Washington, D.C. area. “Many of them talk about inter-personal conflicts with peers that are started or intensified by posts on social media.”

This phenomenon, Dr. Paul explains, has real-life consequences. “I’ve had many teens talk to me about experiencing bullying from peers on social media and that this causes a lot of anxiety,” she says. “Skipping school, changing friend groups, entire school years ruined — because of being a target of bullying on social media.”

It’s not limited to teens, either. When I asked Dr. Paul if she’s observed similar effects among adults, the answer was, “Yes.”

“I’ve also seen conflicts among young adults that started on social media,” she elaborates. “For example, around Father’s Day, I had several clients who were upset, because one of their siblings posted about how wonderful their father was, but in actuality, the father abandoned the family or was abusive.”

Again, this online (specifically, social media) behavior had real-life implications. “These posts led to resentment, feeling invalidated, and sparked conflict with the sibling who made the post,” Dr. Paul explains. “Sometimes, it sparked broader conflict and taking sides among several members of the family.”

So with this concentrated amount of time spent on social media being a fairly recent phenomenon — with the most explosive growth, it seems, having taken place over a period of only five years — what are the possible long-term impacts?

“I can only hypothesize. I teach college classes, too, in addition to my clinical practice, and I’ve observed short attention spans,” says Dr. Paul. “I wonder if this is related to students spending a lot of time online and being able to rapidly click until they find something interesting.”

Until next year’s report — we’ll continue to observe the gradual impact of these trends, and how they evolve.

Featured image attribution: By Jasveer10 [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons / Cropped from original

You’ve spent weeks crafting your website, and it looks great.

At a glance, visitors can see exactly what your company sells, and what you stand for. You have a navigation at the top of the page that brings users to your pricing page, an ‘About Us’ page, and a blog. There are even clear CTAs that encourage visitors to get in touch with your sales team. You feel confident that this website is going to bring in a ton of new leads for your company.

But what happens when someone lands on your site with a very specific question about your product or service?

They click a few links in your navigation, but can’t find an answer. Frustrated, they go back to Google, land on your competitor’s site and find exactly what they are looking for.

That’s a big missed opportunity for your sales team to convert a site visitor into a customer. This visitor had a specific question they were looking to answer when they landed on your site, and the navigation you were previously so confident in didn’t get them an answer quickly enough.

That’s where site search comes in. If Google indexes all the content on the internet and makes it quick and easy to find, site search will do the same for your specific website, making it easy for your visitors to find an exact answer to their question. It tailors their experience on your website in a way that isn’t possible through just your navigation.

Why should you care about site search?

According to WebInc, visitors who use site search are 216% more likely to convert into paying customers than regular visitors. This is because the behavior of someone using site search is largely different from someone just clicking around your navigation.

People using site search have a specific goal in mind. They’ve already gathered all the information they need to make a decision, and they’re simply trying to find a specific product or service on your site.

This is especially true for ecommerce companies. Offering them a simple way to search through your site’s content will go a long way in converting visitors into customers.

Compare this with people who simply click through your navigation. These visitors are simply collecting information, and weighing their options. Maybe they’ll click the link to your blog and peruse a few articles, instead of looking for an exact blog post that answers a specific question.

Search is an integral part of any well-built site, but it has largely flown under the radar for the past couple of years due to Google’s dominance over the space. Google’s own Site Search product made it easy to quickly implement a powerful search engine on your site.

Then in 2017, Google announced that they would be deprecating their Site Search product, and would only offer the free version of the product. Google’s free Site Search offering comes with Google Branding, it takes visitors away from your site, and it’s ad-supported — meaning a competitor’s ad could potentially appear higher than your own organic results. That’s obviously not ideal.

Source: Search Engine Land

For businesses looking to scale, Google’s Free CSE simply won’t cut it. A number of enterprise search solutions, such as Swiftype and Algolia seized the moment and are publishing instructions on how to transition from Google Site Search to their solution. Here at HubSpot, we’ve created our own site search solution that will auto-index all of your content as soon as you press publish.

So why has Google deprecating their site search solution created such a frenzy to find a replacement?

Apart from assisting site visitors that are sales-ready, analyzing site search data can go a long way in improving your overall visitor experience, and also help your service, marketing, and web teams better serve your customers.

Ask anyone who has ever worked in customer support, and they’ll tell you that a large portion of their time is spent simply directing people to already documented solutions in a knowledge article or community forum.

This is not only time consuming for your support reps, but its not a great experience for your customers either. According to the Harvard Business Review, 81% of customers try to find a solution themselves before they reach out to a support line. Implementing site search gives your customers the opportunity to solve for themselves.

This will also free up your support team to focus on more mission critical tasks, and can save your service organization a lot of money over time. Companies like Survey Monkey are seeing great results by implementing site search in their help centers. Out of all the people who visit their help center, 96% are able to solve their problem without having to directly contact support.

Your marketing team can gain a lot of insight on your target audience by analyzing exactly what your customers are searching for on your site. Running a search-log analysis not only gives you insight into what your site visitors are trying to find, but it also lets you know how frequently they are searching for something, and what specific language they use to describe the problem they are having, or product or service they’re looking for.

This could inform your marketing team’s decision to release a series of blog posts to address specific questions your visitors have. Maybe you already have that content created, and you simply need to promote it on social, or create an ad campaign to target specific visitors with that content. Search-logs give your marketing team a unique opportunity to tap into the thought process of your site visitors.

Finally, your web team could use search analytics to inform how they structure the site. Letting people search for those niche questions they have is great, but what if they’re commonly searching for your blog, or your pricing page? If these resources used by most site visitors are frequently showing up as searched for terms, you might want to consider featuring them more prominently on your home page or main navigation.

Do you have site search implemented on your site yet? Give it a try and see how quickly adding search to your main navigation can help your sales, service, marketing, and web teams.

 

Dictionary.com defines marketing as, “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”

If you work in a marketing role like I do, it’s probably difficult for you to define marketing even though you see and use it every day — the term marketing is a bit all-encompassing and variable for a straightforward definition.

This definition feels unhelpful.

The selling part, for instance, overlaps a little too snuggly with a “what is sales” definition, and the word advertising makes me think of Mad Men brainstorming sessions.

But upon digging deeper, I began seeing that actually, marketing does overlap heavily with advertising and sales. Marketing is present in all stages of the business, beginning to end.

At first, I wondered why marketing was a necessary component during product development, or a sales pitch, or retail distribution. But it makes sense when you think about it — marketers have the firmest finger on the pulse of your consumer persona. They research and analyze your consumers all the time, conducting focus groups, sending out surveys, studying online shopping habits, and asking one underlying question: “Where, when, and how does our consumer want to communicate with our business?”

Marketers are crucial for fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

What’s the Difference Between Advertising and Marketing?

Essentially, if marketing is a wheel, advertising is one spoke of that wheel.

Marketing entails product development, market research, product distribution, sales strategy, public relations, and customer support. Marketing is necessary in all stages of a business’s selling journey.

On the other hand, advertising is just one component of marketing. It’s a paid strategic effort to spread awareness of a product or service, but it’s not the only method used by marketers to sell a product.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960’s, E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place, promotion.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each stage of the business.

Product 

Let’s say you come up with an idea for a product you want your business to sell. What’s next? You probably won’t be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, you need your marketing team to do market research and answer some critical questions: Who’s your target audience? Is there market fit for this product? What messaging will increase product sales, and on which platforms? How should your product developers modify the product to increase likelihood of success? What do focus groups think of the product, and what questions or hestitations do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help businesses understand the demand for the product and increase product quality by mentioning concerns stemming from focus group or survey participants.

Price 

Your marketing team will check out competitors’ product prices, or use focus groups and surveys, to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay. Price it too high, and you’ll lose out on a solid customer base. Price it too low, and you might lose more money than you gain. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer analysis to gauge a good price range.

Place 

It’s critical that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your business’s consumers to offer suggestions for how and where to sell your product. Perhaps they believe an ecommerce site works better than a retail location, or vice versa. Or, maybe they can offer insights into which locations would be most viable to sell your product, either nationally and internationally.

Promotion

This P is likely the one you expected from the get-go: promotion entails any online or print advertisement, event, or discount your marketing team creates to increase awareness and interest in your product, and, ultimately, lead to more sales. During this stage, you’ll likely see methods like public relations campaigns, advertisements, or social media promotions.

Hopefully, our definition and the four Ps help you understand marketing’s purpose and how to define it. Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it’s important you understand how to use marketing to increase your business’s efficiency and success.

Magnets, in marketing, are an effective technique for gaining a prospect’s contact information. The problem is these magnets can take a lot of time and energy to produce. Podcasts, e-learning courses, video series, and contests all sound great — but who has time to create it all?

In this article, I’ll reveal nine different lead magnets you can create today by repurposing content you already have.

Before I share each lead magnet example, let’s quickly review the conversion path that turns website visitors into leads — and the role email marketing plays in this process:

1. Call to Action (CTA): This is the button that blog readers and website visitors click to access the resource you’re offering through this lead magnet.
2. Landing Page: This is where your lead magnet captures information provided by the visitor. After visitors click the CTA, they’re brought to a landing page where they’ll fill out a form with their name, email address, and any other relevant information you’ve deemed important.
3. Thank You Page: The visitor is then led to a page where they can download your resource, officially adding them to your mailing list.
4. Kickback Email: The kickback email is your follow-up message to the lead a short time after the exchange takes place. This email marketing campaign starts a conversation with the lead to keep them engaged with your business.

Every blog post in your archive has the potential to generate new leads for your company, so let’s make sure that your blog is a lead generating machine.

11 Lead Magnet Ideas to Try

1. The Mini Ebook

The mini ebook is perfect when you have a series of blog posts about a related subject. For example, if you were running an online pet store, you might pick out the following five posts from your blog to combine into an ebook:

• The 5 pieces of equipment that every puppy needs
• The ultimate guide to housetraining a puppy
• The first 6 months: what you can expect from your new puppy
• The puppy nutrition guide: what your dog should and shouldn’t eat
• The 7 things you should never do when training a puppy

These posts could be logically compiled into an ebook entitled “The Puppy Planner: Everything you need to know to prepare for your first puppy.”

This type of ebook is effective because you’re making the lives of your website visitors easier — which should be the goal of any lead magnet you create. Rather than asking them to find all this content one article at a time, you’re packing it up into a convenient bundle that they can keep and refer back to.

The most successful lead magnets offer an irresistible and instant reward to your visitors, and the mini ebook checks off that box.

2. The Ultimate Guide

If you’re in an industry that is already well established, it can be hard to come up with original content. Sometimes other people have covered a subject in such detail that it’s almost impossible to add extra value. In this situation, I’d recommend producing an Ultimate Guide.

An Ultimate Guide is a comprehensive collection of the best articles about a particular subject. The main difference between this and a mini ebook? You’re not recycling posts from your own blog; you’re linking directly to other sites. It’s important that you don’t copy and paste someone else’s content into your guide, but rather include a link back to the original article.

In the example below, Brian Dean from Backlinko.com produced Link Building: The Definitive Guide

Link building is a complicated and broad subject. Dean’s definitive guide saves his audience a lot of time looking for this content. And because so many other experts have written fantastic content about link building, Dean also saved himself the time of competing with content that already exists.

Rather than just listing the links, Dean adds extra value to his audience by categorizing them and including a brief introduction for each category. This guide has also been well designed, reiterating that this a valuable resource that should be kept and referred back to.

Do you work in an industry that is already bursting with quality content? Think about making your own Ultimate Guide.

3. The Bonus Pack

Offering additional content that is not included in the original blog post is the perfect way to reward readers who opt-in. If you have an article titled “The 5 Pieces of Equipment That Every Puppy Needs,” you could offer readers an exclusive PDF with a few more pieces of equipment that may have come on the market since the original post was published.

In his article, “How to go from one Facebook ad to $197 in less than 60 seconds,” blogger Bryan Harris took this one step further and combined a PDF version of the article along with 5 links that weren’t in the original post — people only received these bonuses when they subscribed.

This lead magnet was so successful, 42% of the people who saw it opted-in to receive the Bonus Pack. Imagine the leads you would have if almost half the people who visited your website gave you their email address.

4. The Resource Guide

If you’ve already written a strategic blog post, consider offering a Resource Guide as a lead magnet. A Resource Guide is a collection of things that help people achieve results.

Dean used this strategy in his post, “SEO Tools: The Complete List.” He offered a free download that detailed the 153 tools featured in his post — the perfect resource for a reader to keep and refer to whenever they need.

The Resource Guide could be as simple as list of five books or apps that you recommend. Since it’s easier to buy a tool to get results than it is to actually implement a strategy, your readers will love this.

What resources could you recommend to a potential customer that would help them to achieve better results?

5. The Checklist

Instructional blog posts are just waiting to be turned into Checklists — and they couldn’t be easier to create. Just take your blog post and simplify it into a series of bullet points. Next, remove any points that don’t contain actionable advice. Split the list into several numbered steps to make the outcome more achievable.

Bonus points if you offer the Checklist in a printable format so people can physically tick-off each item on the list as they complete it. This sense of achievement is a great feeling that people will attribute back to your business.

The Ultimate Webinar Checklist from HubSpot above is a valuable lead magnet because of how practical it is. Hosting a webinar involves balancing a lot of different tasks coming together at the same time. This checklist informs you about everything you need to watch out for, from pre- to post-webinar.

6. The Workbook

The Workbook is an incredibly effective lead magnet, especially for service businesses. In its simplest form, a Workbook is a download-and-complete resource that helps people to apply the principles of your blog post to their own business.

Neil Patel offers this highly practical Workbook for writing blog posts that rank in Google. It includes exercises like planning your blog post structure and experimenting with different introductions.

Patel’s example is brilliantly simple in its execution. He keeps the design to a minimum so people won’t worry about their ink running out when printing and he has left plenty of room for people to write their answers.

The goal of a Workbook is to have the participant learn by doing. As the teacher in this scenario, you’re positioning your business as an expert on the subject matter at hand.

With that in mind, you’ll want to choose the exercises included in your Workbook carefully. Tease information out of the participant gradually, so that at the end of the Workbook they can combine their short answers into a comprehensive piece of work. In Patel’s case, the participant would’ve had a complete blog post written by the time they finished.

A Workbook is the perfect stepping stone to your premium products or services, so be sure to include a strong call to action at the end that clearly tells the participant how you can help them to apply their new found knowledge.

Is there a particular subject that you could help you audience understand more clearly with a Workbook?

7. The Case Study

Case studies depend on very specific types of content, but the successes they reveal can move a customer to take action.

If you have a blog post or interview clip that spotlights a real customer you’ve worked with, package this content into a written case study that expands on the need the client came in with and the metrics of their success. Then, gate this case study behind a form that website visitors can fill out with their name and email address to access the study.

Keep in mind you’ll need permission and approval from the client on which you’d like to create a case study. Once you receive this approval, however, its a perfect lead magnet to host on content that tells your readers about a success you’re customer had under your guidance.

8. The Secret

One of the best lead magnets I’ve ever seen was produced by Tim Soulo. It was so effective that I immediately opted-in without thinking twice. Suolo had written a blog post about sending an outreach email to well known blogger Rand Fishkin. His call-to-action was the following:

This call-to-action was pitch perfect because it got me curious. I just had to know what the email subject was. I also knew that it would be a relatively short read so I wouldn’t have to commit to a lengthy ebook — lazy, I know, but that’s human nature sometimes.

Suolo’s lead magnet is just one page and was made using a standard word processor. There was no point in spending time or money on the design in this case because the secret is the only thing that matters.

I blurred out the tell-tale image and text in the above screenshot — if you want to know Suolo’s secret, you’ll just have to download the lead magnet!

Do you have any behind-the-scenes insights to a blog post that are compelling enough to offer as a downloadable secret?

9. Webinar

Webinars don’t have to be long, collaborative presentations with multiple colleagues or partners. If you’ve got a blog post that merely touches on a subject you’re an expert in, use this blog post as a springboard into a live talk hosted by you and a coworker.

If you’ve written an article about Europe’s recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, convert this article into a Prezi or PowerPoint. Present this document through a live video conferencing platform, using helpful visuals and, of course, your own voice to provide insight that listeners wouldn’t have gotten from just the blog post.

What makes this a lead magnet? You’ll invite people to listen using their email address, and even solicit questions that allow you to score those who speak up during the webinar as potentially more qualified leads to follow up with after the webinar ends.

Make sure you’re clear on the date of the webinar when promoting it through your CTA, and feel free to host it more than once if initial turnouts don’t yield the best attendance.

10. The Cheat Sheet

If your blog post covers a complicated topic, it might be a good idea to offer readers a one-page sheet that they can refer back to when they need to refresh their memory. This could be a glossary of terms or just a brief summary of some key points.

This type of download-and-keep resource takes the pressure off readers so they don’t have to memorize or implement your strategy immediately. It does compel readers to opt-in to your list though which is the ultimate aim.

In this example, Jay Acunzo offers a Visual Cheat-Sheet for Editing to Help You Move Faster. The goal here is to help his readers to edit their work while still moving quickly through the process. A Cheat Sheet is the perfect resource here because the compact format means that people can quickly glance at it while they are going through the edit process. It really is a complementary tool for an existing process.

11. The Guestbook

Guest blogging is a terrific a backlink strategy, but those who use it typically agree to not republish that particular post on their own blog. This is fairly common, as Google punishes sites that duplicate content onto two publications — it’s in nobody’s interest to do so.

What you can do, though, is compile all these guest posts into a book format. Since the content will be gated behind a lead capture form, there is no risk of Google flagging it as duplicate content and you get to squeeze a little bit of extra value from that content you worked so hard on.

There you have it, nine ways to recycle your existing content into lead generating assets. You already have the blog content — all you have to do is implement lead magnets and an email campaign that gets them into your contact database.

In 2017, 71% of small businesses had a website, and 92% of businesses without a website said they’d have one by the end of 2018. Today, having a website is as necessary for a company as having a phone number.

Maybe you’re starting a new business venture or developing your personal brand. Or, maybe you’re looking to update your company’s outdated website. Whatever the case, creating a new website can feel overwhelming, particularly without technical expertise or a budget for web developers.

To alleviate any frustration you might feel, we’ve put together a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to creating a website. Best of all, you won’t need a coder, web designer, or big budget to create one — all you’ll need to do is follow the seven steps below.

How to Make a Website for Free

1. Choose Your Platform

The first thing you’ll need to do when creating a website is find the right CMS (content management system) for your business. There are plenty of free or budget-friendly site builders out there, but they aren’t all created equal, so you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons before choosing one.

For instance, consider whether you need a platform that allows you to code, or whether you’d like to avoid coding altogether. You might also narrow your list if you want your website to support multiple languages. Perhaps you simply want to check out templates offered by different CMS systems, or price ranges to see which you can afford.

Check out 9 of the Best Free Website Builders to simplify your decision-making process. Once you’ve chosen the best CMS for your needs, continue to step two.

2. Get a Domain Name and Web Hosting

One of the easiest ways to appear illegitimate as a company is to shirk on paying for a domain name. If you were looking for a freelance writer, would you more likely hire from Carolineforsey.weebly.com or Carolineforsey.com? A .weebly or .wordpress extension is an indicator you didn’t pay for the full service, which might seem unprofessional or lower in quality — worst case, a consumer might wonder why you can’t afford the full service, and draw conclusions that you’re not fully established.

Fortunately, purchasing a domain name is typically inexpensive, and there are a few different domain sites you can use. Both Godaddy.com and Bluehost.com are cheap, secure, and effective options for buying a domain name, with added benefits such as SSL security and office 365.

Here’s where it gets tricky. You’ll need to choose a domain name as similar as possible to the name of your company, but with over 1.8 billion websites out there today, your company’s name might already be taken.

If your ideal domain name is already taken, consider using a different extension. I’d advise you to use one of the three most common extensions if you can: .com, .net, or .org. However, if it makes sense for your business, you might want to check out an alternate extension like .us or .shop.

Play around with it. Once you’ve chosen and paid for a domain name, you’ll usually also get personal email accounts attached, so make sure you’re happy to use your domain name as your main online identity.

3. Choose a Template for Your Site

Now, for the fun part.

On whatever CMS platform you chose, take the time to browse through templates and themes, and choose one you think best represents your brand.

When in doubt, you can’t go wrong if you choose something clean with straight lines, and a limited amount of text. If you need some inspiration, check out 20 of the Best Website Designs to Inspire You in 2018.

Ultimately, no one knows your business better than you. Take the time to consider which template would most likely appeal to your ideal demographic.

Within your CMS, you can probably use filters or search to narrow down on templates related to your industry.

It’s important your template is responsive, so your site will look the same on all devices. When considering templates, you also need to decide whether you want a static header or slideshow header, and how many pages you’ll need to fit in your menu bar. Stay away from hard-to-read fonts or flashy backgrounds that could distract a consumer from understanding your core message.

Once you’ve chosen a template and theme, take the time to customize it. Your site’s design and functionality is your chance to persuade an audience to take a closer look. It’s imperative your design makes sense to your ideal consumer and works to enhance your product’s success rather than hinder it.

4. Add Pages to Your Site

It’s important to plan exactly which pages you’ll need to include in your site. While it varies business to business, I’d guess you’ll need at least a “Home” page, an “About Us” page, a “Services/Product” page, and a “Contact Us” page.

Of course, you can choose to rearrange page topics any way you want, or combine them. If you’re unsure, check out other company websites within your industry to get ideas for how to organize your navigation bar, or which pages to include and exclude.

I might be biased, but you should probably also include a blog — you know, sometimes they come in handy.

While every platform is different, it’s typically easy to add and remove pages on whichever platform you use.

5. Write Content

This is arguably the most important step. Now that you have your pages set up, what will you put on them?

I’d suggest writing rough drafts for pages like your “About Us” page and landing page. Talk with coworkers and stakeholders — what message do you want to put out there? What tone do you want to set? Should you make jokes and be funny, or aim to be more inspirational?

If your online audience stumbled across your site, what questions would they have first?

Imagine your website is your only chance to have a full conversation with a potential customer. The landing page is the preliminary introduction, “Hey, we do XYZ.” Your “About Us” page digs deeper, “We are XYZ.” And your products or services pages are your big push to the finish line: “You want to work with us? Great, here’s how you’ll benefit.”

During this stage, it’s imperative you do your keyword research.

For instance, if you’re selling eyeglasses, and you notice “retro eyeglasses” has more monthly search volume than “vintage eyeglasses”, you might use this research to steer the direction of the content on your site.

If you’re stuck, check out competitor’s websites to gauge what other companies in your industry are doing.

6. Fill in General Settings

Once you’ve filled in your pages with the heavy-hitter content, you can still increase your search visibility by filling in gaps in your CMS settings.

Make sure you include a site title and tagline in the “Settings” of your website building platform. Go through, and check out the URLs — are those optimized for search?

7. Install Plugins

Lastly, take a look at your site and figure out what you’re missing. The best CMS platform will ideally offer all the integrations you need. Perhaps your business is ecommerce, in which case, it might be wise to install a Shopify plugin extension.

Or, maybe you want to ensure your website is secure, to protect client data. In that case, find a plugin that offers firewall protection and attacks malware or other threats.

Whatever the case, browse your plugin library and pick and choose a few you think will take the effectiveness of your site to the next level.

Once you’re ready, click “Publish”, and your site is ready for use.

How to Make a Website with Google

Google Sites is one of the simplest web builder platforms I’ve used, but with that simplicity comes less sophisticated templates and tools. I’d primarily suggest using Google Sites to make a website for a business event, for internal use amongst employees, or for your personal brand.

I wouldn’t suggest using it to host your business’s primary website since the tools and functions are limited. Even if you want a simpler site right now, you might want to expand down the road, and Google Sites could make that option difficult.

Having said that, it’s still an incredibly fast and easy option. Plus, it allows you to “share” with other Google accounts, similar to Google Docs, so you can collaborate on a site.

Take a look at the four steps below to create a free Google Site.

1. To create a website with Google Sites, go to
https://sites.google.com/new
. Then, click the red “+” sign in the bottom right corner.

2. Next, choose a theme from your list of options on the dashboard to the right of your Google Site.

3. Now, you’re ready to add content to your site. For instance, I added the title, “Caroline’s Consulting Business”, by using the “Text box” tool in the Insert panel. The Insert panel also includes options to embed images or links, or connect to your Google Drive or Google Docs. For example, I circled “Google Docs” in the image below — I clicked that button to embed my “How to Take a Screenshot on Windows” Google Doc into my landing page.

4. Once you’re happy with the way your site works, click the purple “Publish” button at the top right.

How to Make a Website on WordPress

WordPress is the fastest growing CMS, with over 500 new sites built daily. It’s one of the more popular options — it offers a large library of templates and themes to ensure you’re able to create a site that matches your brand, opportunities to mix-and-match plugins, and tools to monitor your SEO.

WordPress is easy to use and budget-friendly, and its versatility makes it a good option for anyone from a small business owner to a blogger.

If you’ve decided you want to create a website on WordPress, here’s how.

Disclaimer: For the sake of simplicity, I’m showing you how to create a free WordPress site. However, your platform might look different depending on which version you choose.

1. Go to https://wordpress.com/create/ and click the blue “Get Started” button. 

2. Fill out the Step 1 form, including your site’s name, your site’s topic, and primary goals.

3. Fill out the Step 2 form — in this step, you’ll either input a domain you’ve already bought, or you can choose a domain straight from here. I chose the free option, “carolineforsey.wordpress.com”, but I’d highly recommend choosing a paid option to appear more official.

4. Choose your payment plan, depending on your goals, budget, and business type.

5. Now, your site has been created. You have a dashboard on your left, but you can also continue to follow the step-by-step instructions you’re offered on the landing page (i.e. “Upload a site icon”).

6. First, I’d suggest clicking “Themes” beside “Customize” on your dashboard on the left.

7. You can search through all the themes or search depending on your subject. For instance, I searched “subject:blog” to find themes related to my business’s topic. There are free and paid options. Select one — you can always change it later.

8. Next, click “Add” beside Site Pages on your dashboard, and fill out content for a page on your site. On the right, you’ll have “Page Settings”, where you can include featured images, page attributes, etc.

9. Lastly, explore the “Configure” section of your dashboard. This is where you’ll find plugins, settings, and options to add people to your WordPress site.

How to make a website with HubSpot

Lastly, let’s take a look at how to make a website with HubSpot. If you’re already using HubSpot’s CRM, it probably makes the most sense to build a website within HubSpot to integrate all your sales and marketing needs in one place.

HubSpot offers a variety of plugins and extensions, themed templates, and sophisticated tools for SEO analysis.

If you want to build a website with HubSpot, it’s easy and intuitive. Here’s how:

1. Within your HubSpot portal, click “Content” on the dashboard at the top of your screen. Then, click “Landing Pages”.

 

 

2. Next, click the orange “Create landing page” button. 

3. Name your page, and then click the orange “Create page” button.

4. Now, you’ll be taken to this “Select a template” page. Scroll through your options, search page templates, or check out the Marketplace. When you’ve found a template you like, select it.

5. This is your landing page. You can scroll over text boxes, images, or other modules to edit them. In the below picture, I scrolled over the “See The World” Banner Text, and when I click it, it allows me to edit that text.

6. You can also click the “Edit modules” tool on the right side of your screen and edit from there. For instance, I selected “Service 2 Text”, which directed me to the “Make it your own” paragraph on my landing page. You can add texts, images, sections, forms, and more from the “Edit modules” section.

7. When you’re happy with your landing page and want to move on, go back to your dashboard and click “Content” at the top of your screen, and then “Website Pages”.

8. Here, you’ll click the orange “Create website page” button and name your page, just like your landing page. Then, you’ll be taken through a similar process of choosing a template and adding content. If you want a more in-depth tutorial, check out A quick tour of website pages.

9. If you want to incorporate your social media accounts, click “Social” on your dashboard. You can monitor all your social media accounts and also publish tweets, Facebook statuses and comments, Instagram pictures, and other content straight from your HubSpot dashboard.

10. If you want to check out your site analytics, go to “Reports” and then “Analytics Tools”. You’ll need to install the tracking code, which is easy to do within the HubSpot platform by clicking the orange “Install the tracking code” button. If you’re still unsure, check out How to install the HubSpot tracking code.

11. If you want to write blog posts, go to “Content” > “Blog” on your dashboard to create, publish, and monitor your website’s blog posts.

This is a fairly broad and general overview to get you started building a website with HubSpot, but there are plenty of more in-depth features and tools you might want to explore with a HubSpot specialist, or by checking out some articles on academy.hubspot.com.

Search is changing thanks to artificial intelligence.

It’s not just that search engines are using AI to categorize and deliver results (though they are).

It’s that the power of AI is making new, better types of search possible.

Searches are becoming more personalized. Search engines now aim to deliver the right result for your particular needs.

Location and context are becoming more important, too. We’re searching more on-the-go. We use smartphones to discover results in real-time, just before we act or buy.

Voice search is on the rise, thanks to advancements in AI. Natural language processing helps systems like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant “understand” what you say. Natural language generation helps them “respond” to your queries.

On top of all this, the usefulness of search is improving.

Says search expert Duane Forrester at Yext:

“If we look at pure search results, AI is deep in the mix, helping to sort the results we do still read. It’s not deciding what makes the cut to be in the answers we get back (yet), but it’s working to sort the order in which we see those results, effectively acting as a filtering layer based on the search engine’s collective knowledge about us.

“Did you visit X website in the last Y number of days? Google’s system knows — and seeks data on whether that visit was positive for you. If it looks to have been a good fit, the AI may decide to push an answer from that same website higher in the stack hoping to replicate your positive experience for others.”

This is all good for consumers. After all, we get even better results tailored to our particular needs, across text and voice.

It will be good for brands, too. They’ll show up more often at the right time when consumers look for topics related to their business.

But, brands need to prepare for this future to capture the benefits.

Especially brands that rely on blogging to drive awareness, leads, and sales.

As search moves towards voice, how people discover and consume content is changing.

How to Prepare Your Blog for AI-Powered Search

So how do you make sure you’re creating blog content for this new age of AI-enhanced search? Forrester at Yext says to look at your “content and its context.” He recommends several action steps to prepare your blog for this future.

• Make sure your content is built the right way. It needs to be factual, accurate, and conversational. Says Forrester, “There is a lot of nuance and subtlety here, but this document from Google explains how their Quality Raters are trained to evaluate voice answers, for example. If you want insights into normal organic results, this Google training document helps.”
• Use long-tail, conversational phrases for content keywords. Keyword research isn’t dead. But you’ll want to target more conversational terms. Speaking to a voice assistant is quite different from typing into a search bar. This is why HubSpot recommends a topic cluster approach to SEO. You want to own broad relevant categories around a topic, so you’re the go-to result for voice queries.
• Answer lots of questions—even the uncommon ones. This has always been good advice for content creators, but it’s more important than ever now. People talking to voice assistants ask questions of them like they would a person. “Your content should resemble an answer to a question,” says Forrester. “You could even list the question at the beginning to ensure clarity and relevance.”

One thing is clear: If you’re not doing the above, it’s time to start. Artificial intelligence is here. It’s transforming search. And this is all happening faster than expected. To position your brand, big or small, for AI-powered search, now is the time.

The Marketing AI Institute is a content hub that provides actionable information on AI for marketers. It features real-world use cases and expert advice from leading companies like HubSpot. Subscribe today to get actionable insights first.